Heart strings

Fire I: Scorching memories

Cassius entered Liam's office and get to talk with him, a box in his arms. Liam turned off his screens and raised an eyebrow.

Liam: "what's that?"

Cassius: "The records from Day 0 to the last day before Project W escape"

Liam: "well what for?"

Cassius: "I need to show you something"

Cassius dropped the box on the table nearby and opened it. There was a whole pile of files well ordered by date on the right side and a smaller black box on the left. Cassius looked at Liam.

Cassius: "When you asked me to look for anything suspicious about all the people that might have come in contact with your server, I figured a lot of the company services do access your server for various data they require. Aside from the project W and the P.A.L.A.D.I.N. , all other files on your server are public. So I had to review the records from Project W, to see all the people that at some point went to get in contact whether closely or from afar."

Liam smiled in realization and patted Cassius shoulder.

Liam: "Because if one got in once, they have the biometrical access to it which means they can still access the chamber without my authorization or that of Dr. Seraphim"

Cassius: "Exactly"

Liam: "clever"

Cassius: "Thanks sir. But that's not the only thing I have discovered. Since I wanted the records to see if one of them reports about someone else being in the chamber whether it was for a test or assistance especially in the early days and back in the Crisis 0 , I was looking for this files in particular and guess what...both file from day 24 and files 567, 575 and 602 are missing. "

Liam: "what?"

Cassius: "Those were the first test day, the first day of Crisis 0, the day project W was sedated and the day before it escaped. And here (*opening the small black box*) empty, there was supposed to be a USB stick from the Crisis 0 incident"

Liam: "This is so frustrating, who have access to this box?! Is everyone here really able to play with me like that?" (*growling slightly*)

Cassius: "No sir, those files...they were never in the box in the first place. Whoever took them, was planning on releasing Project W in town. I was also confused at first but look"

Cassius took out some files, those were referred as 24, 567, 575 and 602. Liam took them and opened them, reading carefully what was inside of them. He frowned and lifted his head to Cassius in confusion.

Liam: "Those are files from another project, project B-54 . They were destroyed in the fire of the Brazilian lab 10 years ago...this, what the hell is this? This is clearly a hint intended. The person responsible from all this, is clearly playing us, they fucking want us to chase us, playing some kind of mind game?! (*closing his eyes and pinching them with his fingers in annoyance and fatigue*)

Cassius: "The fire?"

Liam looked at him confused for a moment and then remembered.

Liam: "oh it's true we started working together the following year. Years ago, I was still one tech engineer assistant. I was assigned on a project in Brazil, in a secluded base in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Back then, I was with a tiny group of 10 other young tech assistant, we were under late Dr. Orion. We were working on a thing that was supposed to be a new source of energy, Alcestium.
A mineral that was found by locals on stormy night. They said there was a really violent one that was raging for hours while they were in the forest. They said they saw the sky burning with purple flames before something landed nearby.